This invention relates generally to an apparatus, system and method for providing remote communications to a mobile unit, which communications preferably automatically result in a hard-copy of an alphanumeric message contained within the communication. This is particularly applicable to the telephone industry where telephone craft technicians are necessarily out in the field moving from service location to service location in vans and need to automatically receive and print out paper copies of service orders, for example.
Communication systems through which information can be transferred between remote locations may use physically connected systems wireless systems, or both. An example of a physically connected system is the traditional telephone system in which telephone calls between two telephone sets are transmitted through physically connected networks of wires extending from one telephone set to the other. Examples of wireless communication include cellular telephone and paging networks.
In a paging network, an individual pager device is not physically connected to any part of the paging network. It simply responds to electromagnetic transmissions. One type of pager only receives a telephone number via the electromagnetic transmission. The person using the pager reads the phone number through a display in the pager and manually returns the phone call through a separate system (eg., a hard-wired telephone line or a cellular phone).
A more sophisticated type of pager can also receive and display alphanumeric messages contained within the electromagnetic transmission to which it responds. The person using such a pager reads the received message by scrolling through the message displayed in the small display of the pager.
In the telephone industry, pagers are used by telephone craft technicians who are out in the field in their vehicles, which are typically vans. Telephone craft technicians also use mobile microprocessor based field terminals which are hand-held and/or mounted in their vans. Examples of mobile field terminals include those marketed under the trademarks MicroTerminal and DataStar.RTM. from Communications Manufacturing Company of Los Angeles, Calif.
To use one of these field terminals, the technician manually makes a physical wire connection to a telephone circuit or cellular phone, downloads a message through the respective communication transmission system, then scrolls through the downloaded message via the screen of the field terminal. A hard-copy paper print-out can be obtained by connecting the terminal to a printer mounted in the technician's vehicle. An example of such a printer is a Star Micronics printer which has been modified to accommodate the spikes and low voltages of a vehicle's electrical system. Such a printer is available through Communications Manufacturing Company (model CMC 7970A).
Telephone craft technicians also use cellular phones which do not need a tangible connection to a transmission system; however, cellular phones do not store messages or print out received messages in paper copies They can be used as a link to the aforementioned field terminals, for example, from which print-outs can then be obtained in the manner described above.
The ability to print out hard-copy in a mobile situation is desirable both because some messages which are received either via an alphanumeric pager or a mobile field terminal are lengthy and cumbersome to read by scrolling through the limited display area of these types of devices. It is also often desirable to have a paper copy of a message for archival or record keeping purposes. This is particularly true within the telephone industry, for example
Although the above types of equipment are useful, there is still the need for a simplified communication apparatus, system and method which automatically receive communications into a vehicle without external tangible connection and which automatically and immediately print out a received message onto paper. It would also be desirable for at least a part of such apparatus, system or method to allow for portability by a person who moves away from a mobile unit, such as a telephone craft technician's van, so that the person can obtain some degree of communication access regardless where he or she is.